Hasta La Gadget!

When the first Lytro camera was announced, it looked pretty cute, but it was impractical because of its limited options. It was basically just a plaything. Now, however, Lytro wants to change this with the release of a camera designed for professional and prosumer shooters.

The Lytro Illum captures photos as an interactive window, instead of just a static cross-section of reality. It comes with a 40-”megaray” light field sensor, almost four times the resolution of the original Lytro. Below is a sample of some interactive images shot with the camera. Be sure to click around to see how the refocusing feature works:

The new camera has also got a 30-250mm 8x optical zoom lens, a constant f/2.0 aperture, and a high-speed shutter, which is capable of freezing motion under a variety of different circumstances. Sounds intriguing.

After capture, you can adjust aspects of images that are usually fixed, like focus, tilt, perspective shift, and depth of field. The Illum will be launched this July for $1,599(USD), and you can pre-order one now over on the Lytro website at an introductory price of $1,499, with just $250 down.

The guys at VentureBeat spent some time with Lytro CEO Dr. Ren Ng to get a demonstration of the Lytro Illum, and shared this video of the interview:

[via FStoppers]

I have to admit when I first heard of drone selfies, I thought that actual drones were taking selfies of themselves.

That seemed a bit odd, but it made a lot more sense when I saw Amit Gupta’s drone selfie video. It simply blew my mind. The zoom out is quite amazing.

There are now a few more dronies popping up – so it’s almost sort of a thing now. The trick of a good dronie is to find a good location, because otherwise it just looks ordinary.

I like the overall look captured by the dronies as well. You can see so much detail when the drone zips away.

[via kottke]

Nikon has unveiled a new digital camera called the Coolpix S810c that is its newest camera to use the Android operating system. Since the camera has Android on board, it is able to run apps and can upload video and images directly to social media.

The Android 4.2.2 powered camera can access any app available on the Google Play store and can send email directly from the camera. The S810c features a 16MP sensor and has vibration reduction to make images clearer. Optical zoom is 12x and digital zoom is offered to extend that range to 24x. On the camera’s back is a hi-res 1229k-dot TFT LCD touchscreen monitor, with anti-reflective coating.

Video can be recorded at 1920×1080 (30p) resolution, and in-camera image retouching is supported. GPS functionality in the camera tags the images with location data. The camera is available for pre-order now from B&H Photo for $346.95(USD).

The folks at PiFace – makers of hardware interfaces for the Raspberry Pi – wanted to make a camera rig that could create the bullet time effect popularized by The Matrix, but they didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars on cameras. Naturally their first instinct was to see if they could use the Raspberry Pi to make a cheaper alternative. To their surprise, their idea worked!

PiFace calls its rig the Frozen Raspberry Pi or Frozen Pi. It consists of 48 Raspberry Pis each with a Raspberry Pi Camera and a PiFace Control and Display interface, all mounted on a laser-cut wood frame. The computers are networked via Ethernet so they can be simultaneously triggered remotely and so that the pictures they take can be sent to a single computer. PiFace wrote a Python script to collect the pictures and arrange them in order. Skip to around 2:17 in the video below to see the rig in action and people in inaction.

Slow down time and head to the PiFace blog to find out more about how they made the Frozen Pi.

[via MAKE]

NameTag is a pretty cool-sounding app on paper, but it could quickly turn into the stuff of nightmares in reality. It’s essentially an app that can match people’s mugs to their social media profiles.

NameTag essentially uses facial recognition to match people with their accounts on social networks and even dating profiles. All users will have to do is take a picture of the person. The app will then send the image wirelessly to a server, which will compare the image to online records. When a match is found, that person’s name, photos, and links to social media accounts will be displayed.

The app is being developed by FacialNetwork, who is also working on a technology that will let users take things one step further by allowing them to scan the pics to determine the person’s dating history or find their profiles on dating sites. Just imagine what potential stalkers might be able to do with this app.

In addition to smartphone apps, the company is working on a version for Google Glass as well, though if the beta demo below is any indication, the database lookups aren’t exactly instantaneous at this point:

FacialNetwork’s Kevin Alan Tussy explained: “I believe that this will make online dating and offline social interactions much safer and give us a far better understanding of the people around us.”

On privacy, he adds: “People will soon be able to login to www.nameyag.ws and choose whether or not they want their name and information displayed to others… It’s not about invading anyone’s privacy; it’s about connecting people that want to be connected. We will even allow users to have one profile that is seen during business hours and another that is only seen in social situations.”

What do you think?

[via C|NET]